In a typical hemodialysis procedure, which is usually conducted in a dialysis outpatient facility or hospital but can be performed at home, a kidney patient's blood is pumped through a dialyzer, where excess water, toxins, or other harmful solutes are removed. Then the processed blood is pumped back into the kidney patient's bloodstream. Specifically, solutes are diffused across the dialyzer's semipermeable membrane into dialysate, where the dialysate flows in the opposite direction to blood flow in an extracorporeal circuit. Ultrafiltration is achieved by controlling the trans-membrane pressure, causing water to move across the membrane along a pressure gradient that is created. The dialysate is typically a sterilized solution of mineral ions, where urea and other waste products, potassium, and phosphate diffuse into the dialysate. The dialysate may also include sodium and chloride (similar to those of normal plasma to prevent loss of such solutes), sodium bicarbonate (added to correct blood acidity), and a small amount of glucose. During a typical hemodialysis procedure, which lasts approximately three to four hours, as much as sixty liters or more of fresh water may be used to generate the dialysate required for the session.
In this manner, in a typical hemodialysis procedure, a power source for the pump(s) (e.g., electricity) and fresh water (e.g., for the dialysate) are necessary items without which, dialysis cannot be performed. Thus, dialysis treatments may be unavailable in environments where access to such resources is limited, e.g., regions with developing or unreliable infrastructure (e.g., third-world countries or economically-challenged areas), undeveloped regions, and disaster-stricken areas (e.g., a developed region affected by a natural disaster, military conflict, or the like that has temporarily disabled its infrastructure). There thus remains a need to provide hemodialysis with limited resources.